Adrenaline and Nausea
by MLP
Summary: Does Mac buy Veronica's relationship with Piz? Set during the second half of season 3


Adrenaline and Nausea

Mac was worried. She had asked Veronica how things were going with Piz and she didn't like the answer.

_So, Veronica thinks she can live without adrenaline and nausea? Who is she kidding? What's her love of_ crime_ solving all about if it isn't about feeding her adrenaline addiction? Sure, there's the whole seeking justice angle and the joy of making evil doers pay but seriously! Veronica will shrivel up and die without a steady diet of adrenaline. Not so sure aobu the nausea but is seems like that's just the natural effect of coming down._

Mac wasn't nearly the excitement hound Veronica was but she had dumped a perfectly nice and extremely cute guy because of boredom. Bronson was terrific. Earnest and sensitive and Mac had almost screamed at him a few times for his even temperedness. In less than two months she had gotten to the point where she thought she knew how he would react and what he would say in any given situation.

Max, on the other hand, surprised her and made her laugh every day. He wasn't sensitive and he thought earnest was the name of a half a bottle of wine. Max was as smart as Mac herself and that was exciting. She hadn't felt that level of intellectual kinship since...

Best not to go there.

Max might be a criminal but he wasn't violent. Mac was pretty sure he wasn't violent.

Not that she would be much of a judge.

_Oh my God! I'm addicted to bad boys, too! _The thought brought Mac up short. For two years, she had watched Veronica feed her addiction with a guy who drank too much, fought too much, had too much money and no boundaries and Mac had privately wondered what V saw in him. All this time, Mac had secretly believed that she had better taste in men and that Cassidy had successfully hidden his dark side but now, here she was, ass over elbows for a guy who was deliberately flunking out of school in favor of his criminal enterprise.

The thought made Mac grin.

Then she thought of Piz.

_Poor Piz. He's a simple, straight forward, nice guy. A simple, nice guy who has no idea there's a freight train bearing down on him._

_Snap out of it! Maybe Veronica means it this time. Maybe she really is done with Logan. And even if she's not, Logan seems pretty happy with Parker._

Mac frowned.

_Oh, poor Parker. I gotta take my hat off to her; not many rape victims would be so ready to get back on the horse that threw them...yuck. Strike that analogy. Not many girls who've been through what happened to Parker would be so ready to date again. Although...I admit I've seen a different side of Logan lately. He does have a certain amount of charm that has absolutely nothing to do with his ridiculous bank account._

Mac's frown deepened.

_Maybe what we're all seeing is Logan-sans-Veronica. Maybe the reason he seemed kind of surly and dark is because of her. Maybe Parker's natural ebullience is bringing out the sweeter, lighter side of him. Maybe different people are exactly what Logan and Veronica need. Maybe Logan is really happier this way._

Now Mac felt a little nauseous.

_Is Veronica really happier this way, too? Is love supposed to be even keeled? I mean, for people like Logan and Veronica? Right. That's why last fall, Veronica couldn't stand to let Logan out of her sight without putting a tracking device on him but she doesn't get why Piz is disappointed that she's so pumped to spend the summer in Virginia without him. Veronica pretends it's because Logan gets in trouble without her standing guard over him but it seemed more like she was terrified some skank would snap him up in her talons. As though anyone who saw the way he looked at her could doubt that she was the only girl in the world for him._

_Piz seems more like something Veronica can carry around in her purse wearing a day-of-the-week sweater than her boyfriend. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days she tazes him just to see what he'd do._

_And honest to God, Logan is charming and funny but I swear there are times when I _know_ that while he was smiling and nodding, he was tuning out every word coming out of Parker's mouth. I could tell because I do the same thing._

_I did it with Bronson, too._

_I never do that with Max. Hot, nerd on nerd action, indeed!_

Mac smiled again, thinking of Max, her criminal genius uber nerd. Thinking of him took her mind off the sense of impending doom she'd felt ever since she asked Vernica how things were going with Piz.

_No, not since I asked her. Since she answered me._

Mac was worried.


End file.
